8 Longevity Lessons Learnt from Japan

1. Public health common sense

Avoid the spread of germs and bacterial/viral contamination by wearing masks when sick and also by using hand sanitizer in public areas. Most Japanese restaurants provide wet paper or cotton towels to be used before meals. Some of the cotton towels are even heated prior to be handed in. Almost all public restrooms are properly equipped with toilet seat sanitizer. Also, Japanese people make sure to change their shoes for slippers when they get home. In this way, they avoid bringing in whatever it is that they have encountered while being on the street.

2. Eat fish, seafood and seaweed

Unless one totally rejects the Japanese cuisine, fish, seafood and seaweed are eaten on a daily basis. This can happen without one even noticing it, as many soups and dishes contain at least one of these three ingredients.

3. Eat plenty of vegetables

The importance of vegetables in Japan can be noticed from the spread of vegan cafes and restaurants, vegetable and fruit juice bars and also form the sheer amount of 100% vegetable juices that can be found in regular supermarkets. 

4. Drink green tea

Green tea is drunk everywhere in Japan. Hot or cold, in a cafe or a tea house, as a welcome drink in a sushi bar, in the metro, on the street, you name it. There is a wide range of iced green teas that can be bought in supermarkets or convenience stores. Almost all of them are unsweetened.

5. Reduce your sugar intake

There are no dessert menus in traditional Japanese restaurants. Most of the sweets that can be found here are either made from a bean paste (which is not excessively sweet) or can be acquired in French confectioneries (which are famously small).

6. Take care of yourself and find your vocation

Japanese people are usually mindful of their choice in clothes and of the way in which they look, paying a lot of attention to the details of a perfect hair, appropriate make-up and manicure. This attitude probably leads to self-content and to being at ease with oneself. It is not only the physical looks that matter, but also the mind. While sipping a tea or a coffee, many Japanese, both young and old, take a couple of minutes off to read a book or just indulge into a power nap. Work is not forgotten, nonetheless. I have seen a lot of passion and devotion in many people performing different sorts of jobs: from gardening to teaching, from driving to complicated financial analyses that I couldn't really figure out.

8. Be nice to others

The Japanese politeness is already notorious. Many read in it a lack of honesty and openness. However, I would like to focus not on interpretations of it, but rather on how it is felt at the individual level. I, for one, love it when no smile of mine remains unanswered, when people help me without me even asking for their help or when I see nice deeds done without expecting any personal benefit in return. Whether they're heartfelt or not (and who could really tell?), smiles eventually become contagious. 

Tokyo's Drinks

One of the things that strikes me most about Tokyo is its variety of non-alcoholic beverages and the wide spread of vending machines that sell them. These vending machines are literally everywhere, rarely alone and mostly in groups. I've taken a couple of pictures of the drinks that caught my eye and will update this post every time I find new noteworthy additions.

By far, the most delicious drink I have encountered so far.

Please, do not drink in the morning, evening or night.

'For many years people have taken it to feel cool'. So, go ahead...what are you waiting for?

 'This black coffee gives you a full flavor. Please enjoy the sharp aftertaste that the sharpness.'

'POCARI SWEAT is a healthy beverage that smoothly supplies the lost water and electrolytes during perspiration. With the appropriate density and electrolytes, close to that of human body fluid, it can be easily absorbed into the body.'

Worry not! 'This cider is made from clear water'.

'COLA SHOCK + makes you feel refresh & better! Get a tasty new Cola!'

How Novels Make Me a Better Person

I don't know about you, but most of my friends don't really like reading novels. For many, opening a fiction book has become tantamount to throwing their time out the window and receiving nothing worthy of it in return. In their opinion, the situation is totally reversed when it comes to biographies, science or even popular science books. These latter genres provide the reader with  some kind of useful information - and sometimes even knowledge - which can be put to a good use later on, even if this use ends up as a quick mention in a general conversation.

Wanting to know more is definitely a good thing and I, for one, am a huge fan and avid reader of the popular science literature. In a world full of pragmatism, defending the value of information gathering is futile, although emphasizing the beauty and usefulness of apparently impractical endeavors, such as that of reading fiction, seems to be a must. In all honesty, delving into the twisted plot of a novel every now and then might enrich your life in a not so direct fashion, but meaningful nonetheless. The exact route will probably vary from person to person, but there is still a lot to learn or at least to meditate upon.

What strikes me most about novels is the way in which they bring me closer to my utmost spiritual ideal, which is that of unconditional love. Unless we've been lucky enough to be already born this way, most of us need to train our capacity for loving other people in the absence of positive expectations. Looking at our evolutionary history, marked by more or less intense periods of violent conflict, it makes so much more sense for conditional love  to have been selected for at the expense of its unconditional version. So don't be too harsh on yourself if you find it hard to love only the people you like and who love you back. But don't think that you cannot do anything about it either because that's not quite true. The control of your emotions derives from the control of your thoughts and we already know how one can successfully discipline one's mind. As with most human enterprises, it requires perseverance, commitment and some degree of effort. On top of that, a comfortable cushion perhaps and a couple of minutes of mindfulness per day.

Now, you might reasonably ask why would someone be interested in achieving unconditional love if (1) we might as well survive without it and (2) it requires so much work. The answer lies in the fact that general compassion and its association with unconditional love lead to personal happiness and spiritual fulfillment. These are the findings of a relatively large body of psychology and neuroscience research. Also, you might easily notice this correlation by observing the behavior of those people around you whom you regard as genuinely happy. Truth be told, how could real happiness be associated with feelings of hate or with the holding of grudges? It's kind of a non-starter.

When we analyze the behavior of the people around us and, more rationally or not, decide on liking or disliking them, we have to be aware of the fact that we have a very fragmented perspective on their lives. Being lied upon, for instance, is not something that will make you love the liar. But understanding the reasons behind the lie might actually achieve just that.

I was recently shocked to realize that although I have disliked many people throughout the years by being exposed to certain unfortunate bits of their behavior, I have always ended up nurturing the most positive feelings towards the characters I've met in novels. It goes without saying that not all of these characters were instances of moral virtue and the like. Some of them were quite monstrous, to say the least. But, as part of a  novel, a character is usually presented in its complexity and, as such, the readers do not only witness a string of imperfectly related actions. We also get an insight into the bigger story and, most importantly, into its evolution, together with the reasons and constraints that determine a certain course of events. 

I have many times wondered if I had still liked and felt the same affection for Sarah Woodruff, Rodion Raskolnikov, Severus Snape or Cersei Lannister were I to meet them in real life. Probably not, because I would've certainly ended up mistaking a part for the whole. And what a loss would I had incurred... So, let's turn to you now. Which are your favorite literary villains and what did you learn from your novels?

Why You Don't Have to Be a Transhumanist to Support Unlimited Lifespan Extension

Transhumanism gives many people the chills. Although not all transhumanists hold the very same ideas and fundamental life views, they do share one common desire: that of transcending the human status (in one way or another) and of comfortably settling into a territory that goes beyond the confinements of humanity. According to some views, transhumanists aim at replacing people with some sort of superior entities, the transhumans. This is scary for many because these transhumans are so different from regular human beings that there can be no feeling of collectivity and togetherness between the two groups. Other transhumanist interpretations, however, rely heavily on the idea of speeding up and directing evolution in such a way as to improve humans in some key core capacities. Now it is regular humans like you and me who, in becoming enhanced versions of themselves, might as well be called transhumans.

I will refrain from casting any value judgment on transhumanism in this post. What I want to emphasize is that not everybody embraces transhumanist principles and, moreover, whenever transhumanism backs up a certain set of ideas, those ideas fall into popular disgrace  due to their association to transhumanism. Most likely, there are other elements at play in building up such a reaction, but it is fairly obvious that the status quo bias is in many cases stronger than the desire to transcend humanity.

One area that is strongly associated with transhumanism - up to the point that no transhumanist would fail to support it - is anti-aging and extreme longevity research. Now, you see, as it is not exactly right to judge a person by looking at her parents and family, it is similarly wrong to dismiss the attempt towards unlimited lifespan extension just because it is backed up by some framework that does not correspond to your life views. At the end of the day, unlimited life span extension and transhumanism are not one and the same thing.

Because longevity research is aimed towards protecting people from the horror of death, I take it to be one of the most humanistic endeavors that we have ever pursued throughout our history. Postponing aging and the diseases associated with it is meant to enable humans to flourish and to seek and possibly obtain (if they have enough time) the happiness that derives from their conception of the good life.  It is related to offering autonomy and liberty in making decisions of the utmost importance. It is nothing if not human loving. What can be more humanistic than that?

If you reject the thought of unlimited lifespan extension because you feel that it is too alienated from your definition of a typical human being, please think again. Could it be that the extent of our lifespan is such a crucial element in determining who we are? Or maybe there are other deeper traits that we should take into account, like our capacities for reasoning and feeling such a vast array of emotions? Remember, there was once a first person to live up to 60, 70 or 80 years of age and he/she was still considered a human like all the rest. With one exception, though: a luckier and possibly happier one.